They Don’t Make Concerts Like This Any More

According to This Day In Music, April 27th of 1974 saw a very interesting lineup of performers play a FREE concert in Connecticut:

1974, a free afternoon event was held in the parking lot of the University of Connecticut, Ice Hockey Arena in Storrs. The four acts that appeared, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, Fairport Convention and Fat Back. Springsteen then went on to play another gig that evening at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

That’s a show that would never happen today outside of maybe a festival setting like Bonnaroo. Just for fun, and in honor of this amazing bit of musical history trivia, here’s a video each from the four acts involved:

A Global Warning From The Dubber

The Dubber (real name: Wendell Culbreath) is a busy guy these days. His new album, Global Warning has just been released, and he has been on a month-long cross-country tour.

March 19th, he played the South By Southwest Music Conference, opening at Headhunters for the LA based band Year of the Dragon, fronted by vocalist Rodcore and of Fishbone fame, Dirty Walt.

After that, he played in Los Angeles with his new band, Rebel Alliance and wrote songs and recorded on a new project with members of Fishbone and Year of the Dragon.
“The title is going to be Five Fingers of Death, The Dubber says, “A straight hardcore rock EP. It brings me back to my humble beginnings.”

Add to that shows in Arizona, Las Vegas, and Seattle, and The Dubber’s been across the country and back before this weekend’s show at the Art Bar, in his current hometown of Columbia, SC.

Haven’t heard The Dubber? His sound is sometimes lumped in with the urban folk scene of Ben Harper but he’s closer in spirit to guys like Gil Scott-Heron, with some classic reggae influences thrown in. Here’s the video for a song off the new disc, With a Feeling (shot here in Columbia by Caveat Productions, the guys behind the Boneshow music video series):

Jack Williams Bound For Glory With Live Album

Folk/Americana singer-songwriter Jack Williams has a new studio album coming out this year, but don’t let that stop you from checking out the double-CD live album he released late last fall. Bound For Glory–Live was recorded April 2009 at WVBR’s ‘Bound For Glory’ radio show from Ithaca NY, a venue and program Williams first appeared on a year earlier. That initial show earned him the listener’s award for “Best Of Bound For Glory” that year, and this documented encore performance is no less magical.

Williams resides in rural Arkansas but originally hails from the deep south, South Carolina to be exact. His songs frequently reflect those beginnings, from the ode to home cooking, “Mama Lou,” to his musical homage to another great folk singer from South Carolina, Josh White.

The songs here come from throughout Williams’ recorded career, but the real treat for those who have not seen him play live is the between-song stories and commentary that’s sometimes as entertaining as the songs themselves. The second disc is filled up with another favorite part of Williams’ concerts, the “That’s All” medley where he strings together dozens of familiar and not-so-familiar tunes in a dizzying sequence that lasts nearly thirty minutes. It’s here, as well as at several points in the original songs that make up the bulk of the main set, where one realizes that not only is Williams a great storyteller and a grizzled, gregarious singer, he has some serious chops on the acoustic guitar and can wring phrases, rhythms, and runs out of one that no other single player is capable of–there are times when one who doesn’t know better would assume that there were two acoustic guitarists playing on one song or another, but it’s all just Jack.

And that’s what the appeal of this crisply recorded and performed set of songs is–that it’s just Jack Williams, the way people on his itinerant path can hear him night, after night, after night.

Want to learn more, or hear some of Jack’s tunes?

www.jackwilliamsmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/musicofjackwilliams
http://www.folkera.com

Rockabilly 88′s Ride Again

When I arrived in Columbia, SC to go to school at the University of South Carolina in the fall of 1985, the very first live band I saw playing was a red-hot rockabilly band called The 88′s, in the soon-closing Golden Spur nightclub space at the Russell House student center. All leather, pompadours, and fat-bodied guitars, it was an auspicious beginning to many years of seeing live music around Columbia. Here’s a picture of the band from around that time:

So you’ll forgive me if I’m overly excited about this Friday’s gig by the Flat Out Strangers, at Doc’s Gumbo Grille on Rosewood Drive. The Strangers are headed up by former 88′s member Robbie Grice, and for this show he has rounded up most of the former 88′s for what promises to be a very special show.

Those former members include original lead singer Screamin’ Rees Lloyd, guitarist Steve Jackson (currently of French rockabilly band the Rockin Royales), and perhaps most notably Mark W. “Doghouse” Winchester, whose upright bass work since the 88′s has included major stints with Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers and the Brian Setzer Orchestra.